


An angel a night, keeps the nightmares in flight

by mrswinchester67



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 10.18 coda, Comfort fic, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Nightmares, book of the damned coda, post 10.18, s10ep18coda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-30
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-03-26 11:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3849031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrswinchester67/pseuds/mrswinchester67
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After enjoying a much needed light hearted night after dealing with the book of the damned, Dean goes to bed only to discover the fight is never over. Castiel steps in to try to help Dean sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An angel a night, keeps the nightmares in flight

**Author's Note:**

> i know this is a late coda fic. shoulda posted it a while ago, but i typed it out in the middle of the night after the idea wouldnt stop bouncing around in my head. then i was too tired to edit it and left it for later. then end of school happened and it was delayed. but here ya go! i hope you enjoy. comments and criticism are much appreciated! thnx!  
> *also i did this unbeta'd so any mistakes or mispellings are my own and as a general disclamer, i do NOT own any of these characters or general storylines.

Dean smiled as he sipped from his beer. Watching Cas and Charlie laugh together was soothing. It was so natural. The chemistry between them like they had been friends for a millennia. He glanced over to where Sam was sitting on the other end of the couch from him. His head bowed to his chest, asleep, still gripping his beer in his hand on the armrest. He noticed the room had gone quiet and looked up to see Charlie had stood and was stretching her arms above her head.   
“Not getting tired are ya Charlie?” Dean jested. She had made huge talk earlier of staying up all night and teaching them how to play dungeons and dragons.   
“Yeah, I guess so. Getting shot really takes it out of a girl ya know? Thought I’d be able to hang with the big boys all night, but alas, I can hear my bed beaconing.” She shrugged and headed toward the stairs.  
“yeah, yeah. Wimp. Talk to me about being tired once you’ve died a couple times” dean laughed. “night Charlie.” He said as she walked up the stairs and let out a yawn muffled “ ‘night bitches” as she walked out of sight.  
Dean got up and plucked Sam’s beer out of his sleeping hand.  
“I think it’s time you hit the hay Sammy.” He gently shook Sam’s shoulder to wake him as he spoke. Sam opened his eyes a bit as he slowly looked around noticing the party was over.  
“Yeah I guess so.” Sams voice rattled heavy with sleep. Still not fully awake, he moved with slow movements, almost like sleepwalking as he stumbled his half drunken, sleepy way up stairs. Dean watched him with a tired smile on his face then turned back to see Cas was still sitting at the table just observing silently.   
“Guess you’re stayin’ here tonight huh?” Dean questioned as he grabbed as many empty beer bottles as he could and headed towards the kitchen nearby.   
“Only if I’m welcome” Cas responded as he gathered up the empty pizza boxes to help speed the cleaning process and followed Dean in the kitchen. “Though it’d be just as easy for me to get a hotel room if not.” He added, not wanting to impose even though he felt it might have been unnecessary. He still didn’t know if staying in the bunker would be weird by the Winchester standards since he wasn’t allowed to stay before. He dumped the boxes in the trash and looked towards Dean who had already come back with the remaining empty bottles, glasses clinking together in his arms.  
Dean felt a pang of guilt in his chest as he dumped the glasses loudly into the bin, remembering that the last time Cas had been in the bunker, he had told him he couldn’t stay. He doesn’t think he’d ever forget the betrayal he saw on his face when he’d said the words.  
“Of course you can stay. Mi casa es su casa.” He added, trying to smile and feign cheerfulness to dispel the tightness in his chest though he was glad he’d decided to stay.  
“Here, follow me and I’ll show you a spare room.” He said as he walked towards the stairs. Cas followed him up the stairs where dean was waiting on him at the top and he flicked off the light switch as cas passed him.  
As they walked a bit down the long hallways of the bunker, cas broke the companionable silence as they slowed to a stop at a door.   
“Charlie is very sweet. I’m glad to have had the chance to finally meet her.” He smiled fondly thinking of their night and playing with the paper fortune teller.  
Dean shook his head in agreement. He couldn’t help the genuine smile that was spreading across his face thinking of his “geek sister” as he liked to think of her. “yeah, she’s pretty great.”   
Dean stood there, still smiling softly as he thought of her and the nice night he just had and looked up to see that Cas was staring back at him, eyes slightly squinted like he was searching his face for something. Dean looked back down before Cas could see the slight blush that he could feel make its way up to his face.   
“yeah,” he added nervously, filling the silence that was becoming louder by the second, “this whole night has just been.. great,” he said truthfully. “It’s been a long time since we’ve have had a real night where we just don’t worry about anything and have a beer and pizza night with friends.” He paused still looking at the ground, at his shoes, at anything besides Castiel’s searching eyes. “With family.” He corrected his previous statement. They were definitely more family than friends. You wouldn’t die for just your friends. He briefly wondered what Cas was seeing that was so consuming. Did he see him like anyone else? Just a tired guy trying to fake a smile. Or could he see the blackness that was creeping throughout his mind and threatening to take over his soul? He was scared to ask. He was scared that the answer would be that he could see smoke coming out of his eyes or some other freaky demon shit and he just wasn’t awake enough to handle that thought right now. He finally looked back up and Castiel was still looking at him, but his face was much softer now. Less searching. More a look of empathy. Almost like Cas knew what he was thinking. Hell, he probably could now that he had his own angel mojo back. That was an unsettling thought. Now Dean was the one searching Cas’ face for something more. A thought crossed his mind about how weird this would look to anyone watching. Just two men staring at each other not saying anything. But he didn’t give it much thought. They had always had a strange kind of rela-… friendship where they could do a lot of communicating without speaking. This was just them. It’d been this way since the beginning when Castiel made his grand entrance into that storage shed those seven years ago.  
“Is something wrong dean?” Cas asked, head tilted slightly to the side in true Castiel fashion, brows pinched together in concern.   
Dean realized his mouth was hanging slightly open as if he were about to speak but just couldn’t form the words. He quickly closed his mouth and cleared his throat a bit.  
“Nah,” he responded as he shook his head, shifting on his feet. “I’m fine. Just tired.” He took a deep breath which he didn’t realize he’d been holding and looked up at the angel.  
“Look, you can stay here as long as you want alright?” he said as he reached out and put his hand on Castiel’s shoulder.  
“I know what I said last time. And believe me, that wasn’t my choice. I had to do that for Sammy. But that’s all long gone now so feel free to call this home. Come and go as you please.” Cas gazed at dean, a wordless smile on his face. He’d been wanting to call the bunker home for some time now but wasn’t about to ask to stay. Dean’s face pretty well mirrored his own. Crinkles around his tired eyes, but a soft smile making a dimple in his left cheek.  
“Thank you,” Cas said slightly bowing his head and then looking back up. “It’s nice to know I have somewhere to come back to at the end of the day.”  
Dean’s chest warmed with the thought of Cas always being with them. Always coming home to him. He smiled one more time as he clapped Cas on the back softly.   
“Anytime, angel.” He’d said without thinking. His cheeks flushed as he opened and closed his mouth a few times trying to think of something to say after that, but conceited to just going to sleep.   
“Well this is your room, I guess you’ve figured that out by now,” he gestured toward the door they’d been standing at.   
“You can read, or sit and think, or… whatever the hell it is you do at night, but anyway, I’m gonna try to get my few hours.” With an awkward nod, and stepped to his door, all of three feet away right across the hall and stopped and half turned back towards Cas.  
“This is my room, so just holler if you… need anything or whatever.” With that awkwardness, he ducked his head and said his final ‘goodnight’ and stepped in his room and shut the door as quickly as he could. Quick as he was, he still had time to notice the amused smirk on Castiel’s face as he said his own “goodnight Dean” and watched Dean disappear into his room.  
What the fuck did he just do? Damnit what was that… ‘anytime angel’? really? Was that the only thing his brain could think up? Dean cursed himself for sounding like an idiot as he angrily shed his layers of clothing until he was just in his boxers and white undershirt. Slipping under the covers he sighed and closed his eyes. Now came the hardest part of any 24 hour day: dealing with his nightmares. The hardest part was that he knew what was going to happen because it was the same every night. He’d go to sleep, and about two or three hours later, he’d wake up covered in a layer of cold sweat, hands gripped in the sheets, mark burning and tingling with the image of killing all the people he loved still playing in his mind. The dreams all varied in ways that he killed them. But they always ended in everyone lying dead around him, their blood covering the blade, his clothes and face. And the worst part was that he liked it. Even in his dreams, he could feel the rush he got chasing them down, feeling the blade slash though skin, their warm blood all over his hands. It felt so real. He hated himself for it. He hated that even unconscious, he still hurt everyone he never wanted to hurt. He rolled over to his side, closed his eyes and tried to think happy thoughts, as stupid as that sounded. He thought maybe it’d help. He thought of a giggling Charlie, laughing about god knows what. He thought of Sam arguing over word validation in scrabble, and he even thought of the confused look on Cas’ face as Charlie revealed that according to the fortune teller, he’d never ride a unicorn. Which was confusing to Cas because he said hed already done that. You can imagine the following discussion. Dean smiled as his beer soaked fatigue finally got the best of his anxiety.  
*  
Cas closed the door, still grinning about how nervous dean had gotten in the hall. It was endearing seeing as dean always seemingly knew what to say. Cas didn’t need sleep anymore, but he like the act of it. He loved dreaming. Loved the feeling of being free while still being tethered to his body. He walked to the bed and noticed that there were a pair of gym shorts and an old black t-shirt folded on the bed with a post it note that said “In case you didn’t bring any sleep clothes – Dean”. Castiel smiled, wondering when he’d put them there. That meant he’d wanted him to stay long before it was evident that he was actually staying. He shook his head in wonder as he changed into the clothes dean had left him, laid his clothes over the desk chair, and laid down between the cool sheets, flipping off the table lamp. He’d never understand dean. He could feel that there was obviously something palpable in the air between them, but he wasn’t sure if Dean noticed. Sometimes he thought he certainly must judging by the looks he returned of the soft, lingering touches, but others, dean acted detached or cold and he second guessed himself. He’d wanted to bring it up so many times, but always thought against it in the end, opting to try to wait for dean to start the conversation. Cas was content to live in the bunker and be his friend, or whatever he needed him to be for as long as he’d have him. He would be more also, but he was going to let dean be the one to decide that. He’d given everything for that stubborn man and he’d be damned, figuratively, if he did it all for nothing.   
Cas was dreaming about flying. He had this dream a lot. His dreams were usually things he’d done before, like he was just reliving them. This time he was soaring through the clouds, invisible to the human eye, surrounded by a flock of birds. He loved the feeling of the air through his then fluffy, thick wings. The feeling of the wind on his face and his arms outstretched. Being so free. Looking down on the ocean shimmering in the setting sun. Just as he was flying lower to get a closer look at some whales near the surface, he was torn out of his dream by shouting. His eyes flew open but he stayed still, lying flat on the bed, waiting for any other sound. There was the scream again. It was Dean screaming Sam’s name, he thought as an eerie chill settled over his entire body. Every fiber of his being told him to run in there to help him but he was certain Sam would come running down the hall and decided it best to let Sam help him. He figured it might embarrass Dean if Cas saw him in that state. He knew better. There was the scream again. Sam’s name again, but louder this time. His screams were so harsh, his voice tired and broken. Like he’d been screaming like this every night for a while now. Cas suspects he had been. He lies still, waiting for the sound of Sam’s feet padding down the hallway. The silence was deafening. Another scream. Slightly higher pitched this time. More panicked. More pleading. Cas gripped the sheets in fists and set his jaw tight. He couldn’t handle this anymore. He couldn’t just lie here as Dean screamed. It was torture. Any second, Sam would run down the hall…Still silent. Maybe it had stopped. He waited with bated breath for any sound of Sam.Then he heard dean yell ‘no!’ Cas gritted his teeth and decided he had to do something. Sam was probably so tired from hearing this all week and god only knows how long and the booze helped him drown it out so he wasn’t coming. He threw off the covers and got up, took the couple steps to open the door and looked down the hall way. Still no Sam. Okay he was going in. He paused outside Dean’s door, hand hovering over the doorknob. Maybe it had stopped this time. Then he heard a sound that made his heart sink into his stomach. He heard sobbing coming from the other side of the door. He hesitated debating if Dean was crying in his sleep of because he had woken up, and decided to sneak a peek. He turned the knob all the way slowly before pushing open the door just a crack. The bedside lamp was still on and he could see Dean was still in bed. He was tossing and turning his head viciously side to side every few seconds, his body contorting, fighting. Cas stepped in one cautious step further. His face was twisted in agony. Tears were seeping from his eyes, heavily shut like he was unconsciously trying to force them to stay in. His left hand was moving around gripping the edge of the bed or the covers, just restlessly moving. His right arm outstretched, his fist clenched around an imaginary blade, the mark slightly glowing red as the light pulsated, lighting up the veins near it. He was covered in a sheen of sweat, his shirt darkening from sweat seeping though as he kept kicking under his covers. Cas watched torturously on as deans mouth would go from closed, teeth clenched impossibly tight together, to open and panting between sobs. Dean Winchester was sobbing. Cas couldn’t stand it, his face contorted in pain for this man. He stepped in and closed the door, eyes locked on Dean, frozen in pain at the sight of his friend. Dean gritted his teeth, turned his head toward the side of the room Cas was standing in and grunted out another “no!” followed by a sob and “Cas…” Cas stopped breathing. His mouth hung agape, face twisted in agony, tears welling up in his eyes. He’d never heard such a broken, helpless, plea come out of his mouth before. He stepped slowly to his side. He had to try something. He stretched out his arm slowly, his two fingers pointed to gently touch Deans forehead to try to stop the nightmares. It all happened so quickly. As soon as Cas touched deans forehead, Dean grabbed him by wrist violently with his left hand and with his right hand grabbed a pistol from his nightstand and had it pointed at Cas’ head in a split second. Cas froze, mouth hanging open, brow pinched together still from seeing dean in so much pain, and a few tears finally escaped down his cheeks. He hadn’t realized he was crying. He wasn’t frozen so much out of fear of being shot, because it wouldn’t hurt him, but just terrified at seeing what this was doing to Dean. The murderous look on Dean’s face slowly fell to a look of utter brokenness as he realized what was going on. He willed himself to lower the gun slowly, despite the throbbing of the mark, and released his tight grip on Cas’ wrist. Dean, whose breathing had all but stopped, felt his chest tighten and he began trying to breathe somewhat normally. With each breath, it became harder. He felt like he couldn’t get enough air in his lungs. Cas just watched him process and seeing him open and close his mouth a few times trying to form words, decided to speak first.   
“It’s okay dean. Everything’s okay. It was just a dream...you didn’t hurt anybody.” He spoke softly as he slowly lowered himself on the edge of the bed by Dean. “You’re okay. You haven’t done anything.” He spoke slowly, willing dean to calm down. Trying to calm him with his voice. He gently laid his hand over Dean’s fist, now balled in the sheet. Dean, who had been looking at him with wide eyed horror, now looked down at their hands. He concentrated on his breathing, trying to make it slow. A warmth radiated from Cas’ hand, up deans arm and across his chest, helping the tightness in his chest and throat dissipate. The glow of the mark slowly faded, the pain dulled to a low throb, the feeling that never left nowadays. His breathing slowed to normal and he finally looked up at Cas again, tears welling up in his eyes threatening to spill.  
“Cas I’m,… I’m so sorry Cas… I didn’t mean to-“  
Dean started trying to apologize but Cas stopped him.  
“Shh dean, it’s okay.” Cas replied softly. “I know you didn’t mean to.” He watched Deans face, making sure he was physically okay and didn’t hurt himself, and used his angel mojo to search his body to make sure his was okay internally. He felt his heart slowing to a normal pace and his breathing was back at a steady, paced increments. He rubbed the back of Dean’s hand gently with his thumb and Dean relaxed his fist and slowly turned his hand until their palms met and fingers slowly intwined together. The feeling helped ground him to what was real. Cas watched the fear and anger slowly leave his eyes leaving behind tired bloodshot remnants of the night terror.   
Dean felt the calm continue to seep through his body from Cas’ touch. The harsh heat of the mark was replaced by a cool, soothing feeling and he leaned back against the headboard and let his tensed muscles relax and just closed his eyes and let the wave wash over him.  
Once he was done seeing the images of Sam, Cas, and Charlie dead around his feet, he opened his eyes and found Cas’ blue ones looking gently back at him, concern and anguish etched into his face. He took a few steadying breaths.  
“Thanks Cas… I don’t know what I would have done without you…”. Dean didn’t care how needy he might sound or that he was looking at Cas like he was the only thing keeping him tethered to this earth right now because that’s how he felt. The truth of it all hit him in that moment. All the things he’d kept buried deep down and not allowed to see the light of day were now front and center. He loved Cas. Deep down, he’d known for a while. But now, in the aftermath of his nightmare, he repeated it to himself over and over. He’d saved him from it. Like he’d saved him from everything else. It was always Cas. How could he have been so stupid?   
“You’re very welcome dean. I couldn’t lie in my room and not do something. You were in pain. I needed to do something. I had to.” Cas replied. He desperately wanted to pull dean tight into his chest and hold him until he was sure he’d never have those nightmares again. But he couldn’t. He had no idea how Dean would react to that. Probably a stiff arm to the chest. He looked down, away from that look on Deans face. He couldn’t look at it anymore and not make a move that might ruin their friendship. Cas stood up about to take his leave and go back to his room, his hand pulling away from Deans and immediately missing the warmth against his palm  
Dean’s heart raced as Cas stood up to leave. No. he couldn’t leave. He couldn’t let him. He needed him. He wanted him to stay. Cas nodded politely as dean stared after him, torn. When Cas turned to leave he reached out and grabbed his wrist again. Firm and resolute but gentle, stopping Cas in mid stride.  
“Wait…” Dean’s voice broke as he said it. “Will you please stay?” He pleaded in a whisper that was barely audible.  
Cas looked back at this poor, broken man. He smiled as he turned his body back around toward him.   
“Of course Dean.” Cas replied as dean scooted over to allow him room to get in the bed with him. Dean half smiled up at him with tired, heavy lidded eyes and tear stained cheeks. Cas got in bed and as soon as he was laying down facing him, Dean enveloped him in his arms and breathed like he hadn’t been able to before. Cas, stunned, slowly let himself relax into Dean’s warm embrace. He smiled as he closed his eyes and felt like a last piece of his grace that he’d been missing finally slotted into place.  
“I… I…I love you Cas.” Dean whispered, grip tightening. He’d never felt so right before. Once he’d said the words, it was like a weight was moved off his chest. He could breathe. He breathed in Cas sweet scent and held him as tight as he could. Now that he had him, he was never letting him go again. He was going to treat him like he deserved to be treated and do everything he could to repay him for all he’d given for them.   
“I love you too dean,” Cas whispered back. He could feel dean press a gentle kiss to his hair. “I love you too” he repeated as he gently rubbed his back. Dean fell asleep nestled in his angel’s arms. For first time since he’d gotten the mark, he slept soundly without any nightmares at all. He dreamt of flying over an ocean with seagulls sounding in the distance and wind billowing through his hair.


End file.
